Steven Sheck

The continued role of telemarketing as a productive tool in the direct marketing mix is worth mention. Just as the experience of using the web has migrated from desktop to tablet and smartphone devices, the experience of speaking with another human being has gone mobile. Technology changes the platforms we use to communicate, facilitating the … Read more

For direct marketing campaigns to succeed, the undivided attention of the recipient is more than a little helpful. This is particularly true when reaching out to executive level decision makers. Given that their office days are overfilled with scheduled – and unscheduled – demands, entering their mindspace with a marketing offer is challenging. Consider then, … Read more

Let’s take a new look at look alike targeting. In the field of topology, there’s an example which insists that a donut and a coffee mug are identical. (Each is a toroid with a hole in it.) The fact that one can hold liquid while the other can be eaten is immaterial; they share common … Read more

Direct marketers tend to think in terms of business record completeness as a list of the “usual suspects”. You know, SIC/NAICS, Business address, Main telephone, Key contact (with email address), Revenue, Number of employees, Web address, etc. Pretty standard record right? And at that it can cost a pretty penny. Missing data can cost you … Read more

Time Is Money. When it comes to drawing traffic to a business location, direct marketers can now take advantage of a fresh way to look at building a prospect file. Instead of (logically?) drawing a circle of a given radius with a business location at the center, there is another approach. Distance is just…distance. A … Read more

Selections are the “menu” from which B2B direct mail marketers choose to build their mailing lists. With more data available than ever, it pays to really understand the choices. This includes the usual selects, plus some very useful risk metrics. Want to know who, where and what a business is?: Top contact. Phone. State. ZIP. … Read more

Among the changes direct mail marketers can expect in 2017, will be the latest 5-year update to the NAICS Code directory. While the NAICS standard has been in use since 1998, the SIC standard that preceded it remains in continuous use, supported and maintained by companies like Dun & Bradstreet, whose SIC-8™ service (original 4-digit … Read more

There’s a new address in town: I.P. address data matched to audience, customer or acquired mailing list data is now available. Such “Ad Tech” is significant because the contact data it yields enables cost effective targeting at a time when USPS standard mail rates are slated to increase in 2017. (The Postal Regulatory Commission has … Read more

Small businesses, including startups and those with histories of past struggles, need repeated infusions of working capital to survive and thrive. Cash flows can be uneven, and sudden needs arise. Traditional lenders are often unable or unwilling to satisfy the need for relatively small loans or tight schedules. The Small Business Administration is a trusted … Read more